The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
AJC On Campus: Regents pick chair, safer bike paths for Kennesaw State
By Vanessa McCray
A biweekly roundup of news and happenings from Georgia colleges and universities.
There’s something about fall on a college campus: Falling leaves, football rivalries and final exams still weeks away. For the Georgia Board of Regents, which governs the University System of Georgia’s 26 public schools, it’s also the time to decide who should lead the way. The answer: Two familiar faces. The regents last week gave Harold Reynolds a second one-year term as board chair and tapped Erin Hames to serve a second year as vice chair. Their leadership roles will continue through the end of 2023. ”I want to thank you all for really serving so ably. I think your unanimous nomination and selection again for next year was an indication (that) this board appreciates what you all do,” said Chancellor Sonny Perdue at the meeting.
NBC New York
US Rhodes Scholars Chosen to Begin Oxford Studies in 2023
The U.S. scholars are among students selected from more than 60 countries and a pool of more than 2,500 applications
A new group of Rhodes scholars from the U.S. has been chosen for the prestigious academic program in a selection process that was conducted online for the third consecutive year. The class of 32 scholars for 2023 was “elected entirely virtually, with both candidates and selectors participating remotely, safely, and independently,” American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust Elliot F. Gerson said in a statement early Sunday. “As successful as the process was, we of course hope to return to in-person interviews and selection next year in cities across the country, as had been done for over a century.” …The 2023 scholarship class, including 16 female and 16 male recipients, is expected to begin studies at the University of Oxford in England in October in pursuit of graduate degrees in social sciences, humanities and biological and physical sciences, the trust said. …List of Winners
…Natalie E. Navarrete from Boca Raton, FL – University of Georgia
See also:
Inside Higher Ed
Rhodes Scholarship Winners Announced
The McDuffie Progress
Albany State awarded $2.9 million broadband expansion grant
From staff reports
Albany State University has been awarded $2.9 million for the Connecting Minority Communities Program federal grant from the United States Department of Commerce. This grant was made possible by the Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2021. The Connecting Minority Communities Program will plan, develop, and expand the institution’s reach to online and distance learning globally. With a focus on broadband expansions, the program will enhance the educational instruction and learning opportunities offered at ASU.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Valdosta prof’s ‘woke’ lesson draws parent fire, free speech support
By Vanessa McCray
A national speech rights group demanded the university rescind an ‘ultimatum’ on how to teach a biology course.
A tenured Valdosta State University biology professor is pushing back after she said was told her to change how she teaches about topics such as sex and gender or else she’ll be removed from the course. Leslie Jones, 67, said a parent complained earlier this semester after she gave a lesson titled “Cultural Construction of Gender” in her Evolution and the Diversity of Life biology course. She teaches that sex is biological and gender is a cultural construct. Slides from the gender lesson, which she shared with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, touch on gender roles, distinctions and socialization as well as sexual identity.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
International student numbers grow, Georgia Tech leads pack in state
By Vanessa McCray
International students are returning to U.S. colleges, including metro Atlanta campuses, after enrollment fell during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last school year brought a 4% increase in the number of international students coming to U.S. universities and colleges, for a total of 948,519 students, according to an annual report released Monday by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Institute of International Education. That’s up from 2020-2021 when international student enrollment dropped to just over 914,000 students. Last year’s jump in international enrollment still lagged behind pre-pandemic numbers that topped more than one million. …This fall, 24,164 out-of-country students were studying in Georgia’s 26 public colleges and universities. Nearly 60% of those students were enrolled at Georgia Tech, according to data released this month by the University System of Georgia. About 7.2% of the system’s 334,459 students hail from outside the United States, compared to 6.56% last fall. Besides Georgia Tech, the other Georgia colleges hosting the most international students last year were Savannah College of Art and Design, Georgia State University, Emory University and University of Georgia, according to the national report.
See also:
The Wall Street Journal
International Students Return to U.S. Colleges, Though Enrollments Still Fall Short
New enrollment of foreign students jumped 80% last year, thanks to pent-up demand after border closures
Statesboro Herald
Veterans Day speaker Nash shares story of wartime trauma, struggles as veteran
District’s first female American Legion commander identifies Legion as part of vets’ support system
Al Hackle/Staff
U.S. Army veteran and Georgia Southern University graduate Casey Nash Purple – Heart and multiple Combat Action Badge recipient, now the American Legion’s Georgia First District commander, shares the story of her traumatic experience in the Iraq War and her struggle afterward with PTSD and depression as she calls on people, including other veterans, to be there for the veterans they know.
WXFL
ABAC Hosts Veterans Day Breakfast for Students Who Have Served in U.S. Armed Forces
Students at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College who have served in the United States Armed Forces were honored at a Veterans Day breakfast on Friday morning in the Melvin L. Merrill ABAC Veterans Center. ABAC President Tracy Brundage said the students deserve special recognition for their service. “These students have served our great country in a special way, and now we’re doing everything we can to help them navigate the rigors of a college education,” Brundage said. “I applaud their dedication.”
yahoo!news
Military Salute: The Week of Nov. 12
Marietta Daily Journal, Ga.
Eleven University of North Georgia cadets have been named Distinguished Military Graduates for 2022-23. Among UNG’s DMG honorees was William Allen of Acworth. DMGs are commissioning cadets who finish in the top 20% of Army graduates on the national Order of Merit List by achieving superior grade-point averages, strong performance in the Army Combat Fitness Test, and proving their worth as exceptional leaders in their college ROTC training. The DMG designation will remain on their Army record throughout their military career.
41NBC
MGA honors Veterans with special ceremony
On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, people across the country celebrate veterans.
by Lizbeth Gutierrez
Middle Georgia State University continued a Veterans Day tradition, by honoring the men and women who’ve fought for our country. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, people across the country celebrate veterans. For Kevin Gunerman, Veterans Day means so much more. “My father was in the army, I grew up in the army. So I was going to go into one of the services,” he said. As a veteran, Gunerman says the ceremony held at Coleman hill was special to him. …President of Middle Georgia State University, Christopher Blake, says the ceremony is just a token of their appreciation for all that veterans have done and continue to do.
The West Georgian
UNIVERSITY OF WEST GEORGIA WIND ENSEMBLE HOSTS ANNUAL “GO WEST” CONCERT
By Anna Roberts
On Nov. 1 The University of West Georgia Wind Ensemble hosted its 12th annual “Go West” concert entitled “All Hands on Deck.” The concert took place at the Carroll County Schools Performing Arts Center with free admission for the community. The concert is designed as a recruiting event for the University of West Georgia Music College of Arts, Culture and Scientific Inquiry. The concert was advertised to high school students, with many high schoolers who attended. The goal of inviting so many high school music students showed what to expect for graduating high school seniors to “Go West.”
The West Georgian
UNIVERSITY OF WEST GEORGIA DEBUTS NEW VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIENCE
By Anna Roberts
The University of West Georgia gave Social Media Ambassadors a first look at their new virtual reality experience in West Commons on Oct. 31 and now this experience is now open to all students. The University of West Georgia Social Media Ambassador Team was invited to preview the new Virtual Reality Experience available for students. They were given an exclusive tour of the set-up and were shown all of the features that make this such a first class experience for students. The Social Media Ambassadors were the first students at the university to get to experience the new activity and all it has to offer.
Fox Weather
Impacts to pecan crops from recent hurricanes expected to be minimal ahead of Thanksgiving
Georgia is the largest producer, with over 200,000 acres of pecans.
By Andrew Wulfeck
The U.S. is the world leader in pecan production, with hundreds of millions of pounds harvested annually, but experts in the industry said the weather can affect pecans in many ways. Georgia is the top producer each year with nearly 200,000 acres of the high-quality source of protein, but tropical weather can wreak havoc with the crop. “Hurricanes and tropical storms from August to October are particularly damaging,” said Lenny Wells, a pecan specialist at the University of Georgia. Both hurricanes Ian and Nicole produced impacts in the Peach State but not enough to significantly alter the crop for the 2022 holiday season.
CNET
Why Big Tech Is Throwing $1 Billion at Sucking CO2 From the Air
The direct air capture industry is still in early stages, but government and corporate interests are pushing it as part of a solution to the climate crisis, despite cost and criticism.
Imad Khan
A pair of 2,000-gallon water tanks standing 15 feet tall occupy a cordoned-off portion of a parking lot down the street from Georgia Institute of Technology’s Carbon Neutral Energy Solutions Laboratory. They’re being used to grow algae, but in an extreme and novel way. Clear bags filled with a green, mucousy substance float in water while hanging from metal pipes nearby. The bags have tubes sticking out of them, being fed both water and carbon dioxide. That substance, algae, is the key to this whole experiment.
Popular Science
One of nature’s tiniest acrobats inspired a leaping robot
A minuscule insect-like animal called the springtail lives atop water. Researchers just made its robotic sibling.
By Andrew Paul
The springtail is a tiny, fascinating semiaquatic invertebrate capable of escaping predators by impressively leaping ten times’ its height, performing a midair U-turn, and finally landing atop the water’s surface. Although there are thousands of known springtail species in nature, the close relative to the flea remains a relatively obscure animal, despite its astounding capabilities. Thanks to a closer examination, however, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and South Korea’s Ajou University have not only gained a better understanding of the creature’s acrobatic skills, but recently pulled off mimicking the movements in their own penny-sized robotic imitator. The implications could one improve the movement of robots much larger than a grain-sized springtail.
Forbes
Unrealistic Expectations Cause False Narratives About Weather Forecasts
Marshall Shepherd Senior Contributor (Director of the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Atmospheric Sciences Program; a leading international expert in weather and climate)
I have been thinking about this and finally decided to put something on “virtual” paper. For some of you, this may feel like an opinion editorial. For others, it may sound like a slight rant. As a scientist, professor, and former president of the American Meteorological Society, I have come to realize that unrealistic expectations cause false narratives about the accuracy of weather forecasts. Here’s why I say that. …Weather forecasts are quite good, and they are certainly better than the expert predictions for last week’s University of Georgia vs University of Tennessee football game (Go Dawgs!). However, it is important to temper expectations on what weather forecasts can deliver.
yahoo!news
CJB Industries develops new detection technology
Brittanye Blake, The Valdosta Daily Times, Ga.
CJB Industries expands to develop Salvus Detection Technology with the world’s first handheld chemical and biological interferometric detector. Salvus is the Latin word for safe. As a part of the CJB Industries, Salvus serves the food and agriculture, life sciences and specialty chemical industries. “We wanted to have an impact on the community by reinvesting, bringing people, training, teaching and learning,” Clinton Beeland, president and chief executive officer, said. “We chose a platform that would allow us to support health, food and agricultural without delving deep into one specific industry.” Beeland said Valdosta is a viable location for the technology company due to the network of universities and colleges, technology and science labs established in the Atlanta, Orlando, Tampa and Gainesville areas. Backed by years of research and testing at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, Salvus has demonstrated fast and effective detection capabilities across numerous applications, according to CJB. CJB Industries partnered with Georgia Tech to produce and manufacture the product.
Morning AgClips
CAES partners with Agrify to grow vertical farming efforts
$26,000 investment was part of the approximate overall $120,000 project cost.
Driving through rural Georgia involves miles of sprawling farmland — cotton, peanuts or any of the crops that make agriculture Georgia’s No. 1 industry. But on the campus of the University of Georgia, the farms are going … up. Vertical farming is one component of the broader discipline of controlled environment agriculture (CEA), defining the production of specialty crops — edible, medicinal and ornamental — in indoor, soil-free systems. Technology provides control over environmental factors which affect plant growth and quality, including light, humidity, temperature, carbon dioxide and nutrient levels. Thanks in part to a new partnership between the Ferrarezi Labin UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences(CAES) and Agrify, a company that produces proprietary microenvironment-controlled vertical farming units, the CEA program at CAES has established two large-scale vertical farms on campus.
Dalton Daily Citizen
Dick Yarbrough: Remembering the extraordinary kindness of Vince Dooley
There is no need for a recitation here of Vince Dooley’s myriad and well-deserved accomplishments on and off the football field. You have seen and heard them numerous times since his passing on Oct. 28 at the age of 90. However, there is a side to this great man you might not know about. His extraordinary kindnesses. In the late ‘60s, my son Ken, along with his best friend Rick, attended Dooley’s football camps. Rick was a terrific athlete and excelled in every sport he played. As a teenager, Rick and his family moved to California. Had he stayed in Georgia, I often wonder if he might have ended up wearing Red and Black. Instead, he graduated from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. In 1984, Rick entered the Air Force and flew 49 combat missions in the first Gulf War. It was a dangerous job. Enter Vince Dooley. Although it had been a lot of years since he had seen the little boy from East Point running sprints at Sanford Stadium, he heard where Rick was and what he was doing and wrote him a letter of quiet encouragement. Rick told me later that hearing from Vince Dooley was a tremendous morale booster. Plus, he delighted in taping the letter to the cockpit for his co-pilot, a Georgia Tech graduate, to see as well.
Higher Ed Dive
OPINION
Merger Watch: Mergers in higher education are global. Here are lessons for US colleges.
A university’s size matters — mergers can boost competitiveness and student value, although they require the unwavering support of institutional leaders.
By Ricardo Azziz (Ricardo Azziz has held numerous executive positions in higher education and led the merger that resulted in Georgia Regents University, now Augusta University. He is principal at Strategic Partnerships in Higher Education Consulting Group.)
Two of Japan’s most prestigious universities sign a pact to merge. Hundreds of students protest a decision to merge their university with two others in Yerevan, the Armenian capital. In Scotland, students and the wider community are being asked to weigh in on a proposed merger of three colleges to create an “anchor institution” within the University of the Highlands and Islands. What can we learn from these pieces of news? First, that mergers in higher education are a global phenomenon. Second, that mergers are being pursued in many countries to enhance global competitiveness. Third, that mergers inevitably arouse opposition. The global phenomenon of higher education mergers has, in many ways, presaged the expected consolidations unfolding at colleges in the U.S. … Third, mergers are often difficult and complex, and not without noisy opposition. …In the U.S., the most successful and broad merger initiative to date occurred within the University System of Georgia, which followed similar mergers within the Technical College System of Georgia. Their successful completion was driven by the state’s governors and the governing boards of the university and technical college systems.
Higher Education News:
Higher Ed Dive
New international student enrollment surged 80% last year
Natalie Schwartz, Editor
Dive Brief:
New international student enrollment surged 80% in the 2021-22 academic year compared to the year before, bringing numbers back near pre-pandemic levels, according to annual data released Monday by the Institute of International Education and the U.S. Department of State. That recovery is continuing this fall. Colleges reported a 9% increase in total international students this term and a 7% rise in new international students, according to a separate survey of more than 630 U.S. higher education institutions. Overall, almost 949,000 international students were studying at U.S. colleges in 2021-22 — a count that includes those within the country and those enrolled online but living abroad. It also includes students in the Optional Practical Training program, which allows them to be temporarily employed in a job related to their area of study.
See also:
Inside Higher Ed
International Enrollment Rebounds
International enrollment has largely recovered from a steep drop during the pandemic, according to a new report. But some numbers are still short of pre-pandemic levels.
Inside Higher Ed
Harvard Will Return Native American Hair Samples
Scott Jaschik
Harvard University announced Thursday that it will return hair samples collected in the 1930s from “700 Native American children attending U.S. Indian boarding schools. Many of these samples have the names of the children whose hair was taken, as well as their tribal affiliation. We estimate there are approximately 300 tribal nations represented in the total of 700 youth.” The announcement came from Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. …It added, “The Peabody Museum apologizes to Indigenous families and tribal nations for our complicity in the objectification of Native peoples and for our more than 80-year possession of hair taken from their relatives.”